As some of you may know, I go to a small school. My graduating class has about 80 kids in it, and the high school only has about 380 kids in it.
While some people hate this size of school because it feels too restricting, I actually like it. It means several things to me:
1) I know everybody
2) This makes it easier to come out because the news travels to everyone on its own.
3) The teachers are close with all the students. It's easier to stand out in class and easier to see a teacher during office hours.
4) Teachers are more involved in your learning.
5) We have awesome traditions. For example:
- Senior Poem: Every year, 4 teachers write the Senior Poem in which each Senior receives a gift that usually relates to a notable aspect about that person or makes a joke about them.
- Shout Along: On the last day before Winter Break starts, the whole school gathers in our amphitheater and we shout the 12 Days of Christmas. Each class gets a day or 2 and then we shout it and compete to see who is the loudest. It's very fun, especially since the Middle School always butchers “5 Gold Rings.”
- Senior Bests: Each senior is voted by his classmates into a “best” or “most likely.” For example, “Best Hair” or “Most Likely to Start a War.” We just voted on this, and my class decided to joke around with it. We elected the class druggie as “Best Baker” and we selected the girl who is almost blind in 1 eye for “Best Eye(s).” I won “Most Likely to Run Wall Street.” My brother won the same won. I guess my classmates thought it would be hilarious to put the twins together.
- Homecoming: During the week leading up to Homecoming, each day has a different them, and everybody dresses up according to this theme. It's really fun, and nobody is “too cool for school.” In fact, the older classes are more crazy about dressing up.
- Senior Trip: The senior class goes on a 3 week backpacking trip at the end of the year. This is not a mandatory trip, but most people go on it. It includes a 3 day solo with little to no food. I'm anxious and excited for this trip.
We have many other traditions that I love, but those are just a few.
As for university, one of the reasons I like Yale is the Residential College system. The university has about 1,300 students per class, but everyone is sorted into one of the 12 Residential Colleges, so each College has 110 or so students per class. I think this is a great number because it allows for the school to be big and small at the same time. And when I say big, I mean medium.
8 comments:
I'm sure that, in time, you'll find similar (possibly even better!) traditions at Yale.
- Lloyd
A small class is always better.
My graduating class has like 400 students and the whole high school has 3000 students. I love it though, it's like a small college.
We had 160 in my class of 1995, we had close knit group of people in my class, I belong to the FFA, it was awesome had two teachers that we hung out with, they were like the parents of ours away from home. I even had them take us home few times, and taking the high school van in the ghetto area because that was some dumb move that the school district did for cheap gas at the time and having the van tire being shot at after coming back from a FFA event lol, yep we had fun!
your high school sounds really cool. our school has about 1000 students, but graduates about 100. alot of people seem to drop out
and mannn. a 3 week trek. where do you go to? thats such a long time to spend with school mates haha. although i spent that much time with people from my school when we went to England. sounds like a bonding experience, good luck
My high school was huge, but I pretty much had class with the same group of about 50-100 people (except for a class here or there).
My undergrad was very large, and I liked it that way. I liked the large feel of university, a sense of being able to meet someone new each day. But rarely does a day go by that I don't recognize at least one person while walking down the street or studying in the library.
My med school class is among the largest in the nation. However, for med school I wished our class was much smaller. It's annoying at the end of the semester meeting someone new in your class who you haven't met before. :-/
Small school? Yeah I guess for where you live that is a small school. Where my boys graduated from had 120 students. From kindergarten thru high school!! If everyone didn't play basketball, there was no team!
Thanks for describing your school, sounds fabulous!
My experience within such a school of such size would have been fundamentally different.
Size-wise, your school sounds like the one I went to for elementary school and junior high. My 8th grade class was around 60 kids and I think we were the biggest ever, at the point.
My high school, though, was around 2,000 kids in 4 grades. Everyday, I saw people in the halls I'd never seen before.
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